Jump to content

February field trip in the late Devonian of Belgium


Manticocerasman

Recommended Posts

It has been a while that I made a decent field trip.

Past Sunday I left with 2 friends to a quarry in the Ardennes from Belgium.

Last year we made a few visits to that place with great success and a fair number of late Devonian cephalopods were found.

So hoping to add a few goniatites to our collections we left early in the morning. The weather conditions for the trip were terrible: it was raining and the wind was blowing very hard.

Before we got to the quarry the rain stopped, but there was still a lot of wind. The rain had turned most of the flat parts of the quarry into a muddy swamp.

But the heavy wind blew the last dark clouds away and we started our prospection in the slag heaps on top of the quarry.

The first corals where collected, mostly hexagoniaria and a worn goniatite .

P1010426.JPG

I made my find of the day in the first 30 minutes in the quarry: In one of those slag heaps I found a large boulder with a large orthocone on it. The specimen was deformed during fossilization, but after clearing the specimen out it proved to be a complete orthoceras of 25cm in length.

This was a monster compared to the most specimens I found there before.

P1010425.JPG

The next stop was a level lower in the ancient part of the quarry, here they were dumping the rocks that where not suited for production, but luckily for us, lots of fossils could be found in them.

This was the most productive part of the day. Although they were hard to find, each of us found at least a couple of decent goniatites.

P1010431.JPG

P1010429.JPG

P1010433.JPG

The rest of the day we spent in the back of the quarry where lots of corals can be found and sometimes a nicely preserved goniatite. Multiple mineral veins are also present with large barite and calcite crystals.

Sadly with the expansion of the quarry the part with the corals was cleared with bulldozers and fossil finds where rare at that location. Still I managed to find an exquisite goniatite specimen, a little damaged, but with very clear suture markings.

P1010434.JPG

My two friends searched through the mineral veins and found multiple good quality barite and calcite crystals.

Meanwhile I prospected other parts and collected a little bag full of small corals and crinoid stems.

P1010439.JPG

(Back to the car with heavy Calcite and Barite cristals...)

Usually we end our day at a local tavern for a drink, but this time I was too tired and I still had an hour drive to home.

I’m already looking forward to my next field trip on 21/02 Then we will be prospecting early carboniferous deposits.

Kevin

growing old is mandatory but growing up is optional.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kevin,

Thanks for the report and pics.

Lovely Goniatite you found!

Regards,

    Tim    VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM APRIL - 2015  

__________________________________________________
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."
John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice report, as always!

"Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another."
-Romans 14:19

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice finds, Kevin! Are you going to show us more once the prepping is done?

Sure ;) now you can only see the rough shape of the fossils. I'll prep some of them this week and then post the pictures.

growing old is mandatory but growing up is optional.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here are the first pictures after a quick prep:

Geisonoceras sp.

Late Devonian ( Frasnian )

Lompret ( Belgium )

P1010444.JPG

P1010446.JPG

P1010456.JPG

growing old is mandatory but growing up is optional.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The goniatites:

Manticoceras sp.

Late Devonian ( Frasnian )

Lompret ( Belgium )

P1010462.JPG

P1010458.JPG

P1010460.JPG

P1010466.JPG

growing old is mandatory but growing up is optional.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

some corals:

Hexagonaria sp.

Late Devonian ( Frasnian )

Lompret ( Belgium )

P1010465.JPG

P1010463.JPG

growing old is mandatory but growing up is optional.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Love the orthocone!

"Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe" - Saint Augustine

"Those who can not see past their own nose deserve our pity more than anything else."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Love the orthocone and last goniatite!

"Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another."
-Romans 14:19

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for sharing.

It's interesting that you find the colonial corals at the same locale as the cephalopos. I rarely have. Corals, crinoids and brachs together but not cephalopods

Nice job on the goniatite.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for sharing.

It's interesting that you find the colonial corals at the same locale as the cephalopos. I rarely have. Corals, crinoids and brachs together but not cephalopods

Nice job on the goniatite.

In the quarry the lagunary deposits are actually next to the reef. So it is not unusual to find larger corals that broke off from the reef due to a storm and dropped further into the lagoon, you can find on regular occasions such corals upside down in the sediments.

There are hints in those sediments of mass events like major storms or such where you can see the bottom of the lagoon covered by a layer of reef inhabitants.

On this 1st picture you can clearly see the lagunary deposits in nice layers on the left. The white/grey massive rocks on the right is the actual reef.

IMG_6642.JPG

This is a good piece where you can clearly see all the broken leftovers from reef inhabitants dropped further in the lagoon:

IMG_6697.JPG

growing old is mandatory but growing up is optional.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The "mash" is generally the most interesting in my opinion! So much info in them.

"Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe" - Saint Augustine

"Those who can not see past their own nose deserve our pity more than anything else."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...